Resource management
Sustainable waste management
Waste and recyclable products are generated in all areas of airport operations. These are collected at the point of origin in various separation systems, handed over to certified specialist companies near the airport, processed in sorting plants, and then recycled or recovered. The resurgence in the number of passengers generated significantly more recyclables in 2022. The quantities of all construction site waste disposed of during the reporting year remained at a similar level to pre-pandemic times due to numerous new construction and renovation projects. To live up to its responsibility for sustainable waste management and make existing processes as resource-efficient as possible, FMG maintains an ongoing dialog with customers and employees.
Environmental Statement 2022 (German)
Responsible water management
The aim of water management at Munich Airport is to affect the natural water balance as little as possible and to minimize any adverse effects caused by water management, drainage, and drinking and firefighting water supplies.
Wastewater disposal concept
Process water instead of drinking water
By 2019, annual drinking water consumption at Munich Airport hovered consistently at around one million cubic meters, despite growth in passenger numbers. Due to the pandemic, the amount of drinking water purchased from the Zweckverband zur Wasserversorgung Moosrain decreased to less than 600,000 cubic meters in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, purchases of water increased again to over 800,000 cubic meters.
Where drinking water quality is not required, Munich Airport is increasingly using process water: for concrete work and construction site moistening, for cleaning runways with high-pressure equipment, for wet sweepers, for cleaning sewers, and for watering green areas, shrubs, and trees. For the cooling of the West and East power stations, near-surface quaternary groundwater (process water) from specially drilled wells is used instead of valuable tertiary groundwater (drinking water). Since the beginning of 2022, a new process water well has been in place at the car wash in the northern area of the plant. 3,615 cubic meters of process water were pumped from it by the end of the year. In total, this resulted in a savings of around 218,000 cubic meters of drinking water in 2022. Since process water pumping began in 2010, the total savings add up to 2,618,000 cubic meters. To use even less precious drinking water in the future, additional process water wells are planned.
Process water instead of drinking water for air conditioning purposes
Aircraft de-icer cycle
De-icing vehicles keep aircraft free from ice and snow before take-off. The de-icer dripping off the aircraft during this process finds its way via slit drainage gutters and channels into underground basins. At the recycling plant at Munich Airport, it is treated mechanically/chemically to recover Type 1 deicing agents. The recycling rate for the active glycol component in de-icer, used for reconstituting type 1 de-icer, was around 56.6 percent for the 2021/2022 winter season. Since the winter season 2000/2001, the recycling rate has ranged between 41 and 60 percent. It is difficult to forecast and influence, as it is highly dependent on weather conditions, especially the amount of deicing agent used, precipitation and evaporation.